New Directions

Class Warfare

A few years ago, John McCain brought up the issue of “Class Warfare” while running for President. He accused Barack Obama of espousing economic policies that amounted to class warfare. Perhaps McCain was sensitive to the issue because economic class warfare had been the policy of the previous Republican Presidents Bush and Reagan. Of course their economic policies were never described as class warfare, they simply destroyed the economy in order that the relatively few number of people at the top of the food chain could enjoy an extreme prosperity at the expense of most of the American population. John McCain’s fear was that, as President, Barack Obama would put a stop to these policies.Unfortunately, McCain’s fears were misplaced. Obama has done virtually nothing to change the fundamental economy of the United States.

Class warfare is nothing new. It only takes a brief look at history to realize that almost all warfare is class warfare. Consider, for example, a classic case: the overthrow of the Czar of Russia by the Communists. In the early 20th Century there were two distinct classes in Russia – a ruling noble class that included the Czar (by the way, the word Czar is a corruption of the Roman emperor’s title “Caesar”). The problem in Russia was the economy, i.e. the Czar and his family owned just about all the wealth and the people had very little. The people rose up against the Czar and his family, killed them all, and implemented a completely different economic system based upon an ideal of equality.

If we look further back in time to 1776, the American Revolution was a response to England’s class warfare. The King of England believed he essentially owned America – and he may have been right. After all, weren’t they founded as colonies of England and weren’t all the inhabitants subjects of the King? So what was the problem? It was excessive taxation. The taxes extracted by England from the colonists were a heavy burden and ultimately America rose up in class warfare against the King of England and all the royalty that owned the various colonies in America.

It wasn’t long after the American Revolution that a rebellion against the ruling class began in France; it was the French Revolution and it was a rebellion against the class warfare of the royalty of France. Like the uprising against Russian royalty in the 20th Century, things did not go well for the wealthy people of France.

Recently, we have witnessed the “Arab Spring” in the Middle East. In these uprisings it has always been a case of the poorer people rising up against their wealthy masters. It has been class warfare. From these and many other examples of past wars, including World War II, it can be seen that wars are usually caused by economic iniquity. Wars occur when the divide between the wealthy rulers and the common man becomes too vast, and it is seen that a few people at the top of the economic food chain are prospering mightily on the backs of the general population. It is the story of history and it is instructive to note that John McCain was and is very concerned about an outbreak of class warfare in America. But why? Does he know something most of us don’t? Probably.

One of the things that Senator McCain probably knows very well is that all members of the U.S. Senate and many members of the House of Representatives are multi-millionaires. They are not your typical Americans. Another thing that Senator McCain probably knows very well is that the American economy was deliberately transformed by Republican Presidents Reagan and Bush and a willing Congress. This was aided by the appointment of key people, for example, Alan Greenspan, to work in the key financial sections of the government, such as the Federal Reserve and the Treasury, in order to make the transformation from a country where all men were treated equally to one where the wealthy were treated as a separate, entitled class. Few people know the whole story of the downfall of the U.S. economy and how it was the result of many years of Republican, wealthy family favoring, economic policies. This sad story has been exposed on Public Television – and as a result probably seen by relatively few people. It can be seen here: Frontline.

Frontline revealed that Greenspan and his henchmen virtually destroyed the U.S. economy. Interestingly, Timothy Geithner was part of this group of people that deliberately created an uncontrolled marketplace that was doomed to collapse while it made a few people immensely rich at the expense of the average American. Inexplicably, President Obama chose Timothy Geithner to be his Secretary of the Treasury, i.e. Obama knowingly put the fox in charge of the chicken coop. We are by no means in a stable economy, even though we have avoided a complete meltdown. The wealthy class still rules and the Republican party is playing a dangerous game of chicken right now with the economy, threatening to let the country default on its obligations if any attempt is made to tax the wealthy. It’s class warfare alright, and its being waged by the Republican Party in order to benefit a miniscule minority of extremely wealthy Americans.

Any reasonable person would see that the wealthy class is playing with fire, confident that the under-class will cave in and obey. However, that isn’t true, it has never been true. That is the lesson of history from the American Revolution and even before: economically oppressed people always rise up. Look at the Middle East, look at Greece, look at Africa, look at the history of South America and Latin America. The problem is that the wealthy, upper class Republicans are blinded by their own greed and stupidity. They believe their flawed economic ideas will work, but their ideas are nothing more than pouring gasoline on a fire – you get a big flame for a short time, and then the fire dies out. It may well be that we are facing a major economic implosion because the fundamental problems that led to the previous meltdown have not been corrected. Indeed, except for Greenspan, many of the perpetrators of the meltdown are still in the game.

McCain was wrong about Obama, he is not an advocate of class warfare, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen. It always does when the wealthy class goes too far. Just look at history.

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